In recent years, the popularity of gaming has been on a steep incline. As a result, legalized gaming is found in most states of the United States and new foreign jurisdictions continue to join the gaming ranks. As such, gaming operators, including casinos have a constant appetite for new games of chance. Increasingly, the new games of chance are electronically implemented in the form of slot machines or video poker machines. Unfortunately, many of the new games are nothing more than gimmicks causing a player's interest to quickly fade.
The present invention is based on two of the most popular wagering props ever created, namely cards and dice. Five identical twenty-four sided dice each have one through six depictions of hearts, spades, clubs and diamonds are utilized by the present invention. Pre-defined winning combinations of the dice and the number of rolls utilized determine the pay out amounts. The patent literature includes various attempts at combining dice and poker into a single electronically implemented game. As set forth below, the previous attempts have been relatively unsuccessful for one reason or another.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,123,333 (the '333 Patent) to McGinnis, Sr. et al., teaches the use of five identical twenty-sided dice having Ten through Ace of the four card suits. Therefore, each dice has a Ten, Jack, Queen, King and Ace of hearts, spades, clubs and diamonds. The '333 Patent discloses pay tables setting forth various winning combinations. The winning combinations are based on numerical values and the suits thereof. The invention contemplates an initial roll and two re-rolls. Re-rolls indicating that a player may select certain dice values and suits to hold and discard. The discarded dice are then re-rolled up to two times. The use of only twenty-sided dice does not allow a significantly diverse pay table as evidenced by the pay tables disclosed therein which suggest pay outs for only five of a kind, four of a kind, full houses and three of a kind.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,120,377 (the '377 Patent) to McGinnis, Sr., et al., also describes a wagering game played with twenty-sided dice. The '377 Patent is a simplified version of the '333 Patent discussed above. The winning combinations are determined from three and four dice arrangements. Unfortunately, the use of only three and four dice seriously limits the winning combinations and ability to generate large jack pots.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,305,686 B1 (the '686 Patent) to Perrie et al., discloses a method of playing a bonus casino poker having X number of dice. The dice of the '686 Patent are conventional (e.g. six-sided with one through six markings on each side). The use of conventional dice does not allow the large number of combinations possible with the present invention.
By utilizing twenty-four sided dice and six values of four card suits, the present invention includes a broad pay table having more possible unique winning combinations than the previous dice poker style combinations.